Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Pooh's Heffalump Movie was a 2005 Winnie the Pooh film directed by Frank Nissen, with a screenplay by Brian Hohlfeld and Evan Spiliotopoulos. The film focused on heffalump-hunting expedition organized by Pooh and the others after a strange disturbance in the Hundred Acre Woods. Story *** Warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. *** Winnie the Pooh and the others are woken one morning by strange noises and discover signs of a disturbance, including prints and missing honey. Rabbit recognizes the noise that they heard as a heffalump and decides to organize an expedition to Heffalump Hollow. Roo thinks that heffalumps sound "neat," but Rabbit tell him that they are most certainly not neat. He and the others outline the dangers of heffalumps in song-- that they have "fiery eyes and a tail for a spike." Despite these supposed dangers, Roo still thinks that the idea of the expedition is "ever-neat" but is told that he is too young to go on the expedition by his mother, Kanga. Roo, not wanting to be left out on the fun, travels to Heffalump Hollow in secret, while the others have their expedition. There, he stumbles into a young heffalump who goes by "Lumpy" and looks like a cute elephant. Roo playfully captures him and they get to talking about their interests. Lumpy reveals that he doesn't yet have his special trumpet, which will signify that he is growing up. Roo takes Lumpy to the Hundred Acre Woods, which Lumpy thinks is a scary place, but Roo shows him that it isn't so scary, it's his home. Meanwhile, the others have been bumbling in their attempts to capture a heffalump, but when they discover Roo with Lumpy, they panic and it scares off Lumpy, who ends up getting captured in one of the traps that they set. Kanga is alerted that Roo is missing and Roo discovers Lumpy and manages to coax him to calm down and free him from the trap. The two are then chased again by Pooh and the others and Roo ends up falling into a small crack and becoming trapped, but in danger of falling. Lumpy finally discovers his special call and summons his Mama Heffalump, who is able to rescue Roo. Everyone realizes that their fear of each other was only a misunderstanding and they all become friends. Characters *Winnie the Pooh *Tigger *Rabbit *Piglet *Eeyore *Kanga *Roo *Lumpy *Mama Heffalump *Christopher Robin (Non-speaking) Crew *Directed by Frank Nissen *Produced by Jessica Koplos-Miller *Screenplay by Brian Hohlfeld and Evan Spiliotopoulos *Unit Director: Masaki Sugiyama *Unit Producer: Yukari Kiso *Based on the Characters Created by A.A. Milne *Voice Casting and Dialogue Director: Jamie Thomason *Art Director: Tony Pulham *Supervising Film Editor: Nancy Frazen *Editors: Robert Fisher, Jr. and Anthony F. Rocco *Animation Director: Don MacKinnon Songs and Music The film's score was composed Joel McNeely, with songs performed by the cast and Pooh mainstay Carly Simon. The film's songs were released to the album The Best of Pooh & Heffalumps Too, also featuring music from other Pooh films. *The Horribly Hazardous Heffalumps *Little Mr. Roo *The Name Game *Shoulder to Shoulder *In the Name of the Hundred Acre Wood/What Do You Do? Reception Pooh's Heffalump Movie bothered some Pooh purists, who felt that heffalumps should remain imaginary as in A.A. Milne's original stories, something that tormented the imagination of Pooh and his friends, but were never seen. Lumpy, however, proved to be a popular character, later featured in the direct-to-DVD sequel Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie and made a semi-regular character in the Playhouse Disney series My Friends Tigger & Pooh. The film garnered approximately $18 million at the U.S. box office, nearly enough to make up its $20 million dollar budget, but also earned well over $30 million dollars in non-U.S. markets. The film was a critical success, certified Fresh with 80% favorable reviews at the popular film review website Rotten Tomatoes and an average rating of 4.5/5 stars at Amazon.com, with over fifty 5 star reviews. Fast Facts *'Length': 68 Minutes (To date, the shortest Pooh film released to theaters.) *'U.S. Release Date': February 11, 2005 *'U.S. DVD Release Date': May 24, 2005 *'Tagline': Heffa Nice Day *'Working Title': The Heffalump Movie *Christopher Robin appears only in scenes shown during the film's closing credits. *One of the final Disney film releases to also be released to VHS. *Not in the Disney vault, still generally available for purchase More to Explore *''Pooh's Heffalump Movie'' at Wikipedia *Disney Official Site *''Pooh's Heffalump Movie'' at Rotten Tomatoes *''Pooh's Heffalump Movie'' at IMDb *''Pooh's Heffalump Movie'' at Movie Tome Category:Movies